The Dirt

Netflix's latest original film makes it's intentions known approximately 2 minutes into it's running time. A man pleasures a woman in the middle of a crowded party and she then proceeds to spray her orgasm across the room. It's all simulated of course but it's something I never thought we'd see in a mainstream movie. Unfortunately this moment of taboo busting is as crazy as the film gets. For a story filled literally with sex, drugs and rock n'roll it's all.......well it's kind of boring.

Mötley Crüe formed in 1981 when a bass player called Nikki Sixx (Douglas Booth) met a drummer named Tommy Lee (Machine Gun Kelly). They were kindred spirits and a rapid bond formed. The addition of an oddball guitarist called Mick Mars (Iweon Rheon) and a singer/walking erection called Vince Neil (Daniel Webber) turned them into a glam rock sensation that soon became the talk of Los Angeles. But when you add a few combustible egos to a cocktail of groupies, heroin and Jack Daniels........well.......shit happens.

This should have been a very entertaining watch. But somehow it ended up as a dull and episodic collection of hedonistic scenes that don't gel together at all. It tries to shock but blows it's load (as it were) in the first 120 seconds meaning everything else we see feels tame and safe in comparison. It's adapted from the 2001 autobiography of the same name. Now that was a hair raising read. The film version knocks off the book's sharper edges and flat out removes a lot of it's darker moments but it also trims away the backstory of everyone apart from Nikki Sixx. Because of this we get very little insight into why the band members act the way they do and so they come off as crude, spoiled, petulant, misogynistic assholes who you couldn't care less about. The character of Mick Mars, arguably the most talented member of all, barely exists. He's there to comment on the behaviour of the others and that's it. 

A lot of it's problems feel like they're down to over judicious use of the scissors during editing. Mick Mars for example or Vince Neil's very well documented run in with the law. His life changing (for others) Hanoi Rocks involvement would be a defining time in any other band biography but here it gets little more than a perfunctory glance. Another moment involving the infamously documented Tommy Lee temper gets the same treatment and it will leave you with a bad taste in your mouth for the rest of the film. It's the kind of thing in a post #metoo era that should have been pored over a bit more and the fact that it wasn't makes for an odd story decision. The film is called The Dirt for a reason. It's supposed to be about the shittier side of the band, it's supposed to be about self criticism. Overlooking it does no one any favours.

It's not all bad. Some of it works. The downtime during the tour with Ozzy Osbourne is recreated with queasily relish. You'll never look at a line of ants the same way again. The concert scenes too are well done, especially the debut of one of their most famous hits "Shout At The Devil". Director Jeff Tremaine (of Jackass fame) gets the buzz across, both in terms of how the audience and the band are thriving on the experience. They didn't skimp of the theatrics and neither does the movie. Of the main cast Webber and Kelly as Vince Neil and Tommy Lee are the stand outs. Kelly's take on Lee is a carbon copy replica and Webber somehow manages to imbue Neil's character with the little bit of heart and sympathy the film can muster. Booth as Sixx struggles with a highly unlikeable character and tries his best while Rheon as Mick Mars barely even registers.

Eh....It's not the worst film I've seen this week. That's all there is to say really. There's some shock value here but there's no bit of substance at all. It's a pity. It takes an 18 certificate look at Mötley Crüe and ends up being duller than Bohemian Rhapsody, a 12 cert look at Queen that had all it's more interesting moments polished out.